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Dr. Joey, Board Certified

Category: Dog Veterinary

Satisfied Customers: 4695

Experience: 15 yrs in practice, specialist canine/feline medicine

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My dog rodeo, now 13.5 years....had after a blood test...my

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my dog rodeo, now 13.5 years....had after a blood test...my vet said she had liver cancer....she took 3 weeks, 2 x/day of doxycycline...her energy and appetite came back...at the time, weighed in at 39 #'s...that was 3 months ago...about 65 days ago, she wouldn't eat, except for and an occasional cookie...went to the vet wednesday....same dr...her stomach is distended, hard to move around the last couple of days....i have to lift her up to bed...dr. said same thing, but she's gained 10#'s, now 49#...he's now prescribed minocycline....she's been drinking alot of water, but hardly any foo as i said...he gave me a can of science diet digestive care, and was told to make in a broth form with her regular pdigree dry/glucosimine chondroitin....she won't touch it yet...will these meds help her appetite? i don't think she' pooped fro 4-5 days...b4 that her stool was dark...please advise...i also give her milk thistle....many thx...judy jack
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Hello I am Dr. Joey. Thanks for trusting me to help you and your pet today. I am a licensed veterinarian with over 15 years of experience. I look forward to working with you. I am unclear why Rodeo was prescribed an antibiotic if your veterinarian suspects cancer? Is there infection suspected as well or is your veterinarian trying to treat some sort of infection like tick-borne disease (while tick titer lab work is pending)? You have not listed any medications that will improve her appetite. The minocycyline (only drug she is on now?) may actually lead to nausea as this is an antibiotic. You should ask your vet about anti nausea medications for her, especially if she has liver issues.If she was my patient I might recommend you try Pepcid AC (famotidine) at the lower dose 10mg every 12 hours; there are no anticipated side effects and you can get this at any people pharmacy. but there are more powerful drugs your vet can prescribe to help nausea and there are appetite stimulation drugs as well your vet can prescribe. If we are just using a generic antibiotic with hope it might help, then perhaps this is not a good choice for her.As well, if she has cancer (or another liver issue) have you already discussed further testing to know if she has cancer such as an abdominal ultrasound +/- aspirations (or true cut biopsy via ultrasound) of the liver or affected organs to get a diagnosis? Also, you may need to have her on some liver supportive medications which your veterinarian can prescribe. There are some cancers that might respond to medications and some that will not. Overall, though, liver cancer does not carry a good prognosis. But the fact she is on an antibiotic might suggest your vet suspects something else?I am at a point I need to know what questions you have. We can continue our dialogue in this setting. I hope that the information I provided has been helpful. Please remember to select REPLY TO EXPERT if for any reason you need further clarification, have more questions, or were expecting a different type of answer. My goal is to provide the best answer possible prior to you leaving a feedback rating. If you received all the information you needed, then kindly submit a rating.

i'm not sure, and i really can't afford additional test now....but the initial 3 weeks of doxycycline worked...seemed 2....i've had to force feed her a tablespoon of peanut butter...as i said, drinking alot of water, her stool was dark, i use advantix2 on her...not sign of ticks or fleas...she's always able to bound up the 15 steps to the house...no energy...the 10#'s she's put on are really dragging her down...i also give her a mulitvitamin as well as the milk thistle

Interesting that doxycycline helped. Since the minocycline is causing nausea, then I really recommend you ask your vet if there is either a different antibiotic (such as enrofloxacin) that could be tried or if the addition of an anti nausea medication might be warranted, if your vet wants to continue the minocycline. The supplements are excellent. Our overall goal is to get her eating and have energy. She may be becoming dehydrated and that is something your vet can help with by giving intravenous or subcutaneous fluids (maybe even show you how to do subcutaneous fluids at home).

Then with no improvement it is really time to reassess our diagnosis or do further testing to see if this is actually an infection versus cancer as mentioned above.If not already, as mentioned before, the only thing without a prescription that I might recommend you can try to add in, if she was my patient, is famotidine (pepcid AC) 20mg every 12 hours. this has no anticipated side effects and might help reduce nausea. I also think since the antibiotic is not helping if she was my patient I would recommend stop to determine if this is contributing to nausea.Please keep me posted. I am always happy to answer followup questions. You can reply to this question at any time to submit a followup. My goal is to provide you with excellent service today. If there’s anything else I can do, let me know – it’s been a pleasure working with you and I hope to assist you again soon! Kindly submit a rating as you exit.